Incident
An employee received numerous injuries when he was hit by a fork tine carriage which fell off a forklift. The forklift was being used to close a workshop sliding door that had come off its roller guide track.
Two employees were closing the workshop doors at the end of the day when one of the sliding doors came off its roller guide track. Another person came to assist them to lift the sliding door end back onto the guide track by hand, but it was too heavy. A forklift was then used to lift the door back onto its track. During the process the side shift function was used to move the siding door back into position. An employee pushing the sliding door from the inside was hit by the falling fork tine carriage when it came away from the forklift.
Contributing factors
• The sliding door was difficult to move, was in need of repair and had been so for sometime
• The forklift side shift function was used outside its intended use and not in accordance with Australian Standard AS 2359.2-1985 Industrial trucks – Operation while an employee was in the vicinity of the raised tines.
Recommendations